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Cooking Rice in Instant Pot (White and Brown Rice)

Cooking rice in Instant pot every single time needs a guide that tells you the rice to liquid ratio, how long to cook it, and all other tips. This basic guide to cook perfect rice in instant pot is not just for beginners. You’ll love how quick and easy it is to make rice in instant pot!

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Remember the Amazon prime day madness last month? Just like black Friday, it was very easy to get over whelmed and give in ultimately ending up with loads of stuffs in your house. I know many people who bought stuffs that they actually don’t want (post prime day discussion revealed a lot).

Confession – I too got carried away with the deals and even sat down and loaded my cart with loads of stuffs, but I never hit that payment button LOL. At least I got the virtual shopping therapy satisfaction. It was just about that!

But things changed when I saw the Instant Pot deal on prime day. I’ve wanted to buy one since the Instant pot fever caught up on the net some time back. The actual cost of the pot was not a big deal but that crazy shipping and customs price was sky rocketing; it is like you will end up paying 3 times more money for shipping than the actual price of the Instant pot itself! It was crazy. So was the never ending craze for Instant pot recipes on the internet.

I waited and waited hoping anyone traveling from US would carry it for me saving me ridiculous amount of shipping+custom money. I waited, and waited. Approached few distant friends whom I don’t chat with on regular basis, tried every possible ways.

Finally on Prime day, amazon was giving away the instant pot at few couple of dollars less, I did not get over excited, because I knew the shipping charges are not gonna change. So selected the Instant Pot I wanted to buy, added it to the cart, checked the total cost with shipping (yes I held my heart). And this time I decided I will buy it and I was ready to pay the ridiculous amount of money.

If you haven’t heard of Instant Pot*, let me introduce you – Instant Pot is a smart multi-use Electric Pressure Cooker designed with the objective of being Convenient, Dependable and Safe. It’s an multi cooker that can do the job of a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer, and more. It’s got all these little buttons on it set for different types of cooking. You can pressure cook, steam, make yogurt in it, saute/brown veggies, and can be used a warming pot! The best part? Just like Rice Cookers, you can set it and forget it.. It’s a single appliance that does the job of seven different kitchen appliances or tools.

So I got a brand new insta pot, what next?

Try a few basic recipes, obvious!

Rice – is everyday staple at home. The obvious experiment with an Instant pot was to learn and experiment on cooking rice. Cooking rice in an instant pot to cooking rice in regular Indian pressure cooker is not much different. What varies is the rice to liquid ratio (a little different here) and the time. You need to get used to the settings on the Instant pot first. Try a few basic dishes. And before doing all that read your manual thorough – yes that boring part of working with any new gadget!

Cooking rice in an Instant pot may be straight forward and look easy, but perfecting rice in Instant pot needs a few tips and tricks that you need to remember.

You can make a bit chewy textured rice or completely softer texture rice how ever you want. Just tweak the liquid amount and time to cook the rice to achieve the result you prefer.

How to cook rice in instant pot?

To make white rice –

Rinse –

You can use white rice or basmati rice. Basmati rice is long grain aromatic rice.

First step is to rinse the rice. The debate here is to rinse or not to rinse rice. I ALWAYS rinse rice. Rinsing by gently scrubbing rice with your fingertips not just removes dirt but also the excess starch. The cloudy water you see when you rinse rice is starch and we want to remove the excess starch which will prevent the rice from becoming gluggy.

Adding little oil while cooking rice prevents it from sticking to the pan and also makes rice grains nice fluffy separate grains of rice. This step can be avoided but I recommend you to try once with oil to see the difference. You’ll love how each grain of rice is separated.

Pro Tip – for adding a little flavor to the otherwise boring bland rice is to season it with salt.

A little sea salt while cooking rice enhances the taste.

Liquids can be water, a combination of water and stock or just stock. Stock enhances the flavor of the rice. You wont be stuck with bland boring rice anymore if you use stock to cook rice in Instant pot.

I went one step ahead and roasted uncooked wet rice (rinsed rice) in oil for 2 minutes on saute mode on Instant Pot. This has 2 benefits, brings out the nutty flavor of rice and ensure fluffy rice every single time. This little trick is followed by every Indian mother while cooking rice pilaf (puloa) or biryani rice in cooker. When rice is roasted in oil before adding liquids, you get fluffy, separate grains of rice. This step is completely optional. Totally up to you.

Add 250 ml of water+vegetable or chicken broth or just water over the rice.

Pro Tip – soon as you pour the liquids, close the lid immediately without waiting. You don’t want to loose the liquids. Also if you like a bit sticky consistency rice allow rice to rest for longing time.

You can skip roasting rice and add rice and liquids along with salt and oil into the instant pot and secure the lid immediately. You will still get fluffy rice but with much softer texture.

3. Seasoning –

Season with salt. If you did not roast wet rice you can add the oil now into the Instant pot along with salt. Adding oil at this stage without toasting rice will also keep rice from sticking.

You can follow one of the methods.

Saute rice in oil, add liquids salt and pressure cook.

Add rice, liquids to instant pot, add oil and salt and pressure cook.

4. Pressure cook –

Before closing the lid, stir rice in the liquids a little. This will evenly spread the rice in the pressure cooker pan for even cooking.

Place the lid on the Instant pot. Secure it and ensure the valve is in “sealing position”.

Press “Rice” button on the panel. You want the timer to show 12 minutes. If it’s not showing 12 minutes, adjust the timer.

Let the Instant pot do it job.

Once done, allow it to sit for 10 minutes for natural release.

Before opening the lid, check for the pressure. If there is any build in pressure, manually release it by turning the valve to “venting position”.

Open lid, fluff the rice with fork gently. Serve.

Please note you will get fluffy, slightly chewy rice with my instructions. This is the result of toasting rice before cooking and the time of cooking and resting.

Allow it to sit longer if you are after soft texture rice.

To make Brown rice –

Rinse –

Yes we want to rinse brown rice as well. Rinse until the cloudy water runs through and you see clear water running out.

HAVE YOU TRIED ONE OF MY RECIPES? I’D LOVE TO SEE WHAT YOU’VE MADE! TAKE A PICTURE AND USE THE HASHTAG #CURRYTRAIL ON INSTAGRAM SO I CAN SEE! I’LL DO A HAPPY DANCE IF YOU TRY MY RECIPE AND SHARE IT WITH US!

Cooking perfect rice in an Instant pot every single time needs a guide that tells you the rice to liquid ratio, how long to cook it, and all other tips. This basic guide to cook perfect rice in instant pot is not just for beginners. You’ll love how quick and easy it is to make rice in instant pot!

Course: Main Course, Side Dish

Cuisine: Asian

Ingredients

1cup200 gm white rice

1cup250ml water or chicken/vegetable stock

Optional seasoning -

1tablespoonvegetable oil

¼teaspoonsea salt

Instructions

Soak rice in enough water for 5-10 minutes. Rinse rice in wire mess until clear water runs (this step removes excess starch and any dirt from rice).

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Meet Jyothi

I’m Jyothi (friends call me Jo) and this is my creative space where I share my stories on my culinary adventures. What you will find here is collection of variety of recipes both Indian and International. I focus on creating recipes using simple everyday ingredients with robust flavors! All healthy, delicious comforting meals, including some decadent desserts. Enjoy your stay! Read more…